MLB: 8 percent of players on drugs for ADHD

106 authorized to take stimulants normally banned

Published 6:30 am, Saturday, January 10, 2009

NEW YORK — Baseball authorized nearly 8 percent of its players to use drugs for ADHD last season, which allowed them to take otherwise banned stimulants.

A total of 106 exemptions for banned drugs were given to major leaguers claiming attention deficit hyperactivity disorder from the end of the 2007 season until the end of the 2008 season, according to a report released Friday by the sport’s independent drug-testing administrator.

That’s up from 103 therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for ADHD in 2007, according to figures cited by baseball officials before a congressional committee last year.

“This is incredible,” said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines the banned-substances list for the World Anti-Doping Agency. “This is quite spectacular. There seems to be an epidemic of ADD in major league baseball.”

He recommended an independent panel be established — WADA recommends at least three doctors — to review TUE requests in what he termed “a sport that grew up on greenies.”